Books like Üç Anadolu Efsanesi

Yasar Kemal was nominated for the Nobel, but the first Turkish writer to win was Orhan Pamuk. It is not hard to see why; Pamuk is from Istanbul and his writing is urbane and modern. Kemal came from Anatolian villages and he wrote of farmers, local government officials and merchants, often at each other's throats. There is no polish to Kemal; these are rough-hewn tales of people desperately trying to avoid the poverty that economics and politics force upon them and usually failing. The story called "The Baby" is, as one might expect with that title in this environment, not for the faint of heart or for those with illusions about how starving people treat each other. Kemal called it as he saw it, and what he saw were political, social and economic systems that pushed Anatolian peasants to the edge, and over it.